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a great printer for my needs

==Canon Pixma IP1800==

After having had Epsom printers for quite some time and my last two breaking down by the black ink not working I was in the market for a very cheap second hand printer just to enable me to print out the coupons I so regularly take on my weekly shop. I was lucky enough to be sold this Canon Pixma printer from a lady on a locally based selling site for a mere £6. Of course I needed to buy some ink but to be able to get it for such a low price I wasn't expecting much with the general operating of the printer, but how wrong I was.

==Price and Availability==

Okay so this is a relatively old style printer and having just had a look online I don't think you would be able to pick up a new one from any sort of retailer online. However there are a good deal of them being sold on internet auction sites for next to nothing and if, like me, you can pick this printer up for around the £6 price range then I would highly recommend that you do so. Even most other second hand printers seem to sell for more than the price I paid so I am really rather pleased especially as the condition of mine is still more or less new!

==Look and Design==

This Canon printer is really nothing fancy and looks just what it is. A no frills basic printer. I like the small simple look of it as I am used to having a large 3 in 1 printer which has a scanner and copier and generally used to take up too much room! This relatively small printer however sits nicely on my sideboard and doesn't look too overpowering in my front room.

There are not a ton of buttons to have to learn the function of each of them on this printer and again the basic and simple style is shown by the fact there is literally two buttons and LED lights on the top of this printer. The one button being the power button and this has a green LED light next to it, indicating of course, when lit that the printer is on. The second button is the reset and problem button. This has an orange coloured LED light which will flash if the is a problem such as ink shortage, paper jam and that sort of thing.

The back paper rest is easy to flip up and when this is in a down position it makes the printer into one sleek and smooth oblong box and rather seals it up nicely and keeps the inside dust and crumb free! Once up the rest does a fairly decent job at supporting the paper which is in the feeder ready to be printed on although it leaves around a third of the paper hanging over slightly creating a bend. This however isn't really a problem.

As far as other paper trays go this printer is lacking in that department and doesn't' have any sort of holder or tray to catch the paper which has been printed on. To me this again is not really a problem because I would always have the printer in an area where there would be enough table space to catch the paper one it has been printed on. I suppose this just adds to the simplicity of the printer and if there were another tray or holder it would of course make the printer bulker.

==General Use==

I didn't get any instructions or instillation disc with this printer when I purchased it but this wasn't a problem at all as all I needed to do were connect the printer to my laptop and it was instantly recognised and I was able to print straight away. The lack of instructions didn't bother me either as it is such a straight forward printer to install and use that I am sure even my little boy or my mother could do it ;)

Printing with this Canon is really wonderful when comparing it to my previous Epsom. It perhaps isn't the quietest printer but saying that it is not at all the loudest either. The speed at which is prints out text documents is really very fast and the clarity of the text is without a doubt unquestionably perfect. I have printed a few photos with the Canon too and again I was really amazed at how well the photos turned out. The pictures seems crisp and clean cut and again they were printed out still within a good amount of time and without excess noise.

The ink usage of the printer is really good too. When I purchased it a good while ago now I had to buy both ink cartridges which were not too expensive (again comparing to Epsom) at around £30 for both the black and the colour and have as yet not run out of either (although my black ink is on a warning level) which considering I do a fair amount of coupon printing does seem very good to me.

Changing the ink cartridges is a complete doddle and can be done in less than a minute unlike the faff that was changing the Epsom ink. With this Canon you literally lift the lid and the inks will position themselves in a place where they can be pushed down and slipped out. The new cartridge can then be slipper in and pushed up. Close the lid and your ready to go!

==Technical specification==

Can still be found on the Canon website if you input the model number and I am loathed to copy all this out as it means diddly squat to me and if you are interested looking it up on the official website should be no bother ;)

==Overall Opinion==

Wow, Wow, wow. I have to say for a tiny £6 purchase price I do think I got myself a bargain and seeing as though I have always seemed to by Epsom it has opened my eyes to how good other printers are in comparison and I don't think I will be buying an Epsom again. This is a very simple and basic style printer but it really does the job that I need it to do and does it well. It is cheap to buy, quiet when printing and fast at text documents and pretty speedy at printing out photos. The clarity of printing is very good and doesn't really represent the cheap nature of the printer. Buying ink cartridges is still expensive although cheaper than Epsom and there are cheaper alternatives available which do the job just as well as the proper Canon ink. Replacing the ink is easy peasy and the small size of the printer means it doesn't take up much room or look too out of place in the front room.

All in all this printer seems to tick all my boxes. All right so it probably won't be a printer suitable for everyone but for me this is pretty much perfect and I don't seem to be able to find a single negative about any aspect of this product. I therefore am more than happy to award it a top score of 5 out of 5 stars and give it an exceptionally high recommendation. If you can get your hands on it and you want a simple yet good printer then its well worth getting.

I do hope that this has been of some help/interest to you

many thanks for taking the time to read

Comments

Advantages

Reliability

Disadvantages

You won't get a printer for better value fo rmoney than this

The Canon ip1800 is an inkjet colour printer which can be bought for about £24. It has a rather compact, sleek design with cute curves and doesn't look ugly or boxy at all. Considering the price of the printer it feels quite weighty and solid and sturdy, a few knocks here and there are certainly unlikely to harm it.

Comparing it to our previous printer, the Lexmark z735 which be bought for about the same price the ip1800 undoubtedly wins hands down. The Lexmark was as light as a feather and made of cheap, tacky plastic and it wouldn't feed the paper through straight.

In terms of functionality the printer couldnt be easier to use. You simply plug it into via the USB slot on your PC, install the necessary software which comes on a disc and there's an on and off switch on the printer itself. It really is literally that simple. The only thing you need to do in between is use the software what sort of print-out you want (eg photo) and what sort of paper you are using.

Colour cartridges for the ip1800 can be bought for around £20 and will last obviously depending on how much you use your printer. Personally I don't do that much printing and I find that one cartridge will generally last a few months at least, so it seems like pretty good value for money.

The quality of the printouts are very good too, especially high resolution photographs printed out on photographic paper, although this will use up a lot more ink.

The only real downside I can think of with the ip1800 is that the time from when you click 'print' to the time it takes for the printer to respond can be a bit lengthy, it sometimes makes you think that there's nothing happening. However, when it's active and doing it's job it's a great printer and excellent value for money, I highly recommend it.